Advertisement

Unbeaten Southend go top of the table after win at Brentwood

Try-scorer - Tom Day celebrates for Southend Saxons Picture: JON WAGSTAFF <i>(Image: Jon Wagstaff)</i>
Try-scorer - Tom Day celebrates for Southend Saxons Picture: JON WAGSTAFF (Image: Jon Wagstaff)

SOUTHEND Saxons moved to the top of the Regional Two Anglia table after winning 18-10 at Brentwood.

The victory made it four wins out of four for the Saxons this season.

And director of rugby Josh Ward was delighted to pick up another victory on the road.

"We’re really pleased to go there and win," said Ward.

"It’s a place where not many teams will go to and win this season.

"We speak from experience too after last year when we fell short.

"But, in terms of how the game panned out, we were really disappointed with the first 40. We had some pretty honest words at half-time and I was delighted with how the boys responded in the second half.

"We found a way to win the game against a Brentwood side who were playing with the slope in front of a big crowd.

"That second 40 we saw a massive shift in mentality and the boys managed to get us over the line in the end."

Southend have now taken 19 points from their first four games. But Ward is not getting carried away.

"It’s where we want to be but we’ve got 18 rounds or whatever it is to go," said Ward.

"There are some good teams in this league and lots of sides will beat each other.

"It’s nice to see but every week we’re labelling them as cup finals and that’s our reality.

"If we want to get to what we want to achieve this season we’ve got to get every single week right. You have to get into the habit of winning and enjoying the victories when they come but as of today it’s all about Saturday’s game with HAC."

HAC are currently second in the standings, just a point behind Southend.

But Ward is not too sure what to expect this weekend.

"We don’t know a heap of information about them but we have played them a few times previously," said Ward.

"We were meant to play on the first day so it’s an early rescheduled game but we’re confident if we get our detail right then we will be a handful for a lot of sides. It’s an artificial track so it will suit the way we want to play so it will be interesting."

And Ward will again be facing some selection headaches due to the squad's strength in depth.

"We’ve got injuries and had near double figures missing at the weekend but we’ve quality in depth showing," said Ward.

"That was evident on Friday night when the Priors went over to Rochford and won 31-0 in monsoon conditions. The togetherness of the group is the real pleasing thing."

Tom Day and Jack MacVeigh both scored in Southend's win at Brentwood.

Southend: Ramsey, MacVeigh, Smith, Vaughan, Day, Lloyd, Branch, Reeman, Mowle, Holliday, Newton, O'Kill, Walker, Buckley, Whatling.

Replacements: Keenan, Morrison & Nagy.

READ MORE

>Westcliff suffer home defeat